Berjaya Tioman Resort - Malaysia — Hotel in Tioman

This was my second time staying at the Berjaya, and my partner’s third, and unfortunately things have declined in some ways. On arrival, we found that while the room was generally clean, there was a huge collection of hair in the shower drain, and the bin was full of the previous guest’s rubbish. The shower was sorted quickly after I spoke to the reception but not the bin. Throughout the 8-night stay they did not change any of the sheets (despite making the bed) or take out the bin when they made up the room. The bathroom could do with some renovation as it’s quite run down, e.g cracked tiles and the shower is attached to the wall vertically so you can only shower holding the shower head which is annoying, but the room itself is fine. The only thing worth improving in the room is adding more power sockets. At the moment there are only two in each room, one on each far side of the room - having a couple by the bed would be ideal.

You can’t get any food at the pool bar anymore, and there is no food available at the beach bar. This is particularly annoying since the website has all the menus available - needs to be updated. The decorations at the pool bar are all gone which is sad as they were nice. As for the beach bar, it’s nice overlooking the beach, but they play the same playlist every single night, which is very noticeable. You can very clearly see they have tried to optimise the business model by cutting certain services. Around 5 years ago, there was more on offer but occupancy only seemed to be decent on weekends/public holidays. It definitely seemed like the place was not making much money as nice as it was. As a resort, many of these things should remain available. The main restaurant having been moved near the lobby from the pool area (building is gone) means that it is a long way to go if you are by the pool/on the other side of the resort and want to grab lunch - a big oversight in any resort hotel. Simply rectified by putting a small oven and food prep station in what used to be the towel shack (now defunct sunset snack bar) and have small things like curry puffs on offer. It is instead occupied by a lone security man and completely wasted space.

The food at the hotel has improved, although you do pay hotel prices. The service, on the other hand, is slow. despite there often being 5+ people standing around, on more than one occasion I have had to get up and grab my own menus, and then get up to call someone over to take the order. We observed other diners doing the same, all when there were only a handful of tables seated at the restaurant. Once ordered, the food comes out fast though. It used to be that the service was good but the food not so much, it is the opposite now.

The dive centre and activities are the best thing about this hotel. We had the pleasure of diving with Gary, and arranged it all through Danny the dive master. They made the experience unforgettable, very knowledgeable and you felt very safe under their instruction. I will come here again for the diving for sure. Other activities are reasonably priced, we hired a kayak to go to renggis island which was amazing. The location of the hotel is unmatched, and you can swim out to seen coral reefs from the beach. If you go by the jetty you can snorkel with sharks.

Personally, we would stay here again as I know that the location is unmatched and we can deal with the shortfalls, however future clients should know what is actually on offer as the website has not been updated in quite some time, so they are not...

Positives : Staffs are friendly, very accommodating. No complaints. There was a minor hiccup initially during booking (I was informed just head to Mersing, no need to worry about ferry booking. Nearer to check-in date, I was informed I actually needed to book the ferry in advance, and then the ferry was fully booked. I had to shift my reservation, and the hotel staff assisted me promptly. Even though date changed, all is good, still arrived safely, staff was very helpful.

Improvement area :

(1) Beach - Unforgivable. Beach front is dirty with a capital D, smelly too. When we had lunch right after check-in, at the restaurant, there was a video on Berjaya Group on the hotel, and one of snippets was the Exec Chairman of the hotel with the team advocating on being responsible with the sea/environment. Looks good. And then we walked by the beach front of hotel, the whole stretch, riddled with trash, rubbles, corroded metal/debris. Quite dangerous too, I had to pick and throw away countless glass shards and protruding metal debris. We had to walk all the way to west side nearer to hotel pier/golf club, only then you can see some fish and clear water. The hotel could do away with proper beach cleanup. Literally, the beaches at Teluk Chempedak/Cherating, which should be a class below beaches at Tioman, are much much cleaner and well maintained. Port Dickson pun puts this to shame (sorry PD folks). The next day we went on island hopping/snorkeling at coral Beach etc2, those are great, clean white sandy beach. But as far as the hotel beach, it looks abandoned without care and attention. Such a shame.

(2) Food was OK. Selection is decent. When we arrived, the hotel food stock almost depleted, so on 2nd day of our stay the selection was poorer. In 3rd day, foodstock was replenished and selection got much better.

(3) Facilties are old, borderline decrepit and struggling. No issue with being old, as long as well maintained. We pay a premium, and hotel could take notice on a couple of things : e.g safety, some of the railings at the room needs replacement, the base support are heavily corroded. The pool area, some plastic gratings already damaged and snapped. Some portion of walkways are uneven, pecah2, could use some re-tiling or replacement. Forget about ATV, you’ll end up battling minefield of debris at the dirty beachfront (unless that’s your thing). And don’t even bother going to the gym and games room.

Overall : Decent 4 days 3 nights stay, but could’ve been wonderful. Still lots of foreigners, mostly French and German, which means Berjaya Tioman still has fans and staying / attracting power. But the charm is slowly waning away. Please reinvest in your staff and facilities, they desperately need much needed TLC. Give this historic location, opened back in 1985, a new lease of life. If you can do flagship Taaras, you can of course do Tioman right :). Thank you Berjaya Tioman again...

We stayed at this resort for two nights as a family, and unfortunately, our experience was disappointing overall.

Some of us stayed in the Garden Chalet, and we were shocked by the poor condition of the room—it looked nothing like the photos on the website. The room was outdated, not well maintained, and unclean. We raised our concerns with the staff twice, but were simply brushed off with no real attempt to address the issues.

There are 4 used water bottles in the fridge. Despite requesting housekeeping five times—and even hanging the service request sign on the door in the morning—no one came to clean our room.

In our parents' room, the toilet bowl was faulty. We informed the staff four times before someone finally came in the late afternoon on the second day. Even then, the repair was not done properly. The strong flushing sound disrupted their sleep. No offer was made to move them to another room, which was very disappointing.

Other family members stayed in rooms with room number 300+ had much better condition.

We also didn’t meet the guest manager (Rachel) that everyone praised about.

Other facilities were also subpar. The toilet in the game room was in terrible condition—comparable to a public restroom.

The number of buggies was insufficient, and we sometimes had to wait long or walk instead. We were especially frustrated to learn that the buggy service ends at 11:00 PM. One night, after spending time with family at a chalet on the other side of the resort, we called for a buggy around 11:30 PM only to be told service had stopped. We had to walk a long distance back to our room with elderly parents and a baby, which was a minus point.

It’s truly a pity. This resort has great potential, but it’s poorly managed. Based on our experience, we would not return and cannot recommend it.

*After seeing the reply from the resort management, we are even more disappointed. Each of the families had expressed unhappiness at the reception counter and over the phone, but they said they had no record and we had a “pleasant” conversation about satisfactory experiences. That’s a lie. There was no room service till we checked out on the third day. Our parents were so unhappy they had to call for help to repair the toilet so many times. They couldn’t sleep because they worried the water might overflow the toilet and room overnight. Upon checking out, our family members had complained to Rachel and she agreed that she would be unhappy if it happened to her too. She would feedback to the management and train their staff on this. Our friends who saw the photos of the room and agreed that they looked very different from what was posted on their platforms. Please be cautious and stay in another hotel that is...